This Isn't A Fall To Darkness, Or A Rise To Light
by Insanity-taken-to-new-lengths
Summary: Warren hates his father for what he did. Lee loves her mother despite everything, she can't help it. It's a little fight between friends, but one that means so much to the both of them. Possibly WarrenOC. r
1. Chapter 1

The first version of this wasn't getting to the point, so I changed it, I think it introduces the character and situation in a more interesting way.

A full sentence in bold marks a change in scene, remember that or you'll get lost.

The bustle of the Paper Lantern drowned out the quiet conversation of two people in the back, both of them wearing stained aprons. One was a tiny Asian woman speaking in a clipped Chinese accent, the other a tall and awkward teenage girl, hunched slightly to look the woman in the eye.

"I really have to run, Lily." The girl muttered, looking slightly guilty.

"But we are so busy!" Lily snapped, running a hand through her graying black hair. "Can you not stay just another half hour, Lee?"

"I really, _really_ can't. I'm sorry. I'll work late tomorrow, promise, but tonight I have to go." The girl, Lee, snapped back. Her expression changed from guilt to frustration, she had warned Lily that she would have to leave early that night days ago and still she was having issues. "I've got an appointment to keep."

"Alright, go. But you're staying until closing tomorrow, got it?" Lily demanded. Lee nodded and turned away as Lily stormed off, already yelling at somebody else in Chinese.

She retreated into the kitchen, which was, if it was possible, noisier than the dining room she'd come from. Taking off her apron she hurriedly exchanged it for a denim jacket far too big for her thin frame and left the kitchen, calling goodbyes to the other staff on her way out.

"Where are you headed?" A tall, dark haired boy asked as they brushed past each other. Him on his way into the kitchen, her on the way out.

Lee glanced around to make sure no one else was listening before leaning in close to his ear, which required her to stand on her toes despite her considerable height for a woman, and whispered, "Maxville Supers Prison." The man's face darkened and he brushed past her harshly. "Warren, it's not so bad!" She snapped, but he ignored her.

With a frustrated sigh she turned and left. While she would have liked to stay and demand to know why he looked so angry at her, though she had her suspicions, she would be late if she didn't leave immediately. Warren Peace looked angry most of the time, and it wasn't her job to find out the cause and try to fix it every time, no matter how much she would like to.

Stepping out of the stuffy restaurant into the cool air of the evening was a relief, and she drew in a deep breath of smog-filled fresh city air. Even though the air still held the warmth of summer and it was only late August Lee was dressed for winter, covered head to toe in brightly colored and mismatched clothes, including a scarf with every color of the rainbow in it tied tightly around her neck and mismatched fingerless gloves on her sweating hands.

Cars rushed by, their headlights making Lee squint as she looked for her own beat up old truck. She couldn't remember where she had parked, though she did remember grumbling to herself about having to walk so far, so she started wandering aimlessly down the street. There, at the end just before the corner, where the street dead ended into a rundown old apartment building, was her truck.

The dents in the passenger side door and the chips in the paint and the warped bumper didn't matter to Lee, because it had AC and radio and it drove over sixty miles an hour, and that was all that mattered. She pulled open the scratched door and jumped into the driver's seat, settling back against the worn down and stained upholstery as she started the engine. It grumbled noisily and refused to start for a moment, but eventually it roared to life and she pulled out onto the road.

Every few minutes she checked the clock, cursing under her breath because there was no doubt at that point that she was going to be late no matter what she did. The prison was all the way across town from the little Chinese restaurant, and it was just barely after rush hour so there would no doubt still be some traffic. At best she was looking at a half hour drive, and she was supposed to have been there in twenty minutes.

**Almost exactly a half hour later Lee finally entered the Supers Prison**. It was painfully white, or it would have been to anyone else, not to someone who was used to seeing in black-and-white and glowing energy, it was hardly any change at all for Lee.

A frail looking woman led her through the structure, which was entirely underground and very large and complicated, with al too many twists and turns to find their way through. Along the way there were several security checks, the last of which the woman leading Lee stopped outside of. "You're going to go through here, and we'll have to neutralize your powers at the end before we can let you in to see her. After that, you have half an hour for your visit and then guard will come to retrieve you. Your visit will be observed at all times on the security cameras, and there will be five guards station outside the door just in case anything goes wrong, all you have to do is knock and they'll let you out."

Lee nodded; it was exactly what she had been told every time she came before. She stepped away from the woman and up to the guard. The last check aw also exactly as it had been every time before, several kinds of scanners were run over her, she was patted down, and then a power neutralizing bracelet was snapped to her wrist.

As soon as the heavy metal bracelet closed around her wrist she blinked, her vision went from black-and-white to fully colored so quickly it was nauseating, and with no warning other than the cold metal against her skin. She felt empty, almost weak, but it was a sensation she had gotten used to over the past few years of visits. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to feel like that all the time though, like the prisoners.

Once she was through a moderately young, slightly nervous looking guard led her down another of the white hallways to a large, thick steel door. "Right in here, ma'am."

"Lee." She corrected him as she stepped through the door he held open for her.

Inside were four more guards and a thin, worn looking woman sitting in a metal chair. Lee sat down in the chair opposite her, a slightly larger and more comfortable one that lacked chains to restrain her. "You can go now." She told the guards, though her gaze was fixed on the woman in front of her.

She heard them move away and the door start to swing shut, "Remember, you just call if anything goes wrong." And it closed with a slam.

"Hello, dear." The woman said, straightening up as far as possible in her chair in what might have been an attempt to look threatening.

Lee shook her head in disgust, it was like looking at a pale, gaunt, older version of herself and it was almost terrifying, but in no way threatening. "Look at you, you used to be beautiful."

The woman laughed, a cold and strained sound that made Lee wince. "This is what prison does to people like us, my dear, especially people with powers like ours. We fade, because we can't get what we need." She did look faded, worn around the edges. It was hard to focus on her, to see her form clearly even under the bright lights, as if one's eyes just wanted to slide right off to look at something else just over her shoulder. It was the same for Lee, though she was much clearer and easier to focus on, possibly because of the eye catching clothes she wore, which was the entire reason she wore them.

"You did this to yourself, you know. Prison was your choice, you should have just died." Lee snapped.

"Life is all there is my dear, and when you're as old as me you'll understand why I did everything to keep it. Now let's not have this argument again, we always have it. Tell me about your life; tell me about the world outside." She looked hopefully at Lee, wanting any news she could get. Being cut off from the outside world without any idea what was going on was what she hated most about being in prison, that and not having her powers.

"School starts back up tomorrow." Lee said, as it had been on her mind all day and was the first thing she thought of to talk about. "I'm a Senior this year, I'll be getting a sidekick assigned to me this week. And after the end of the year I'm free to do whatever I want, I'm applying to colleges like Greg did, he got accepted to a UC you know."

"Frankly, I don't really care about your silly brother." The woman snapped, "I'm disappointed in you girl, not going into the family business? Even being a hero is better than trying, and failing because I have no doubt you will, to be a flatscan."

"You have no right to be disappointed in _me_ LeAnne, none at all." Lee snapped, standing quickly and pacing around the table. "I'm making the smart choice, because I _know_ that I'll turn out exactly like you if I stay in this world of idiotic _heroes_, and I am not going to be the clone of you they say I am."

LeAnne laughed again, her hands tightening on the arms of her chairs so hard that one of her nails broke as her body shook. "You are exactly that, and you know it. You're just like Baron Battle's boy, both of you are going to end up exactly what you hate because of that hate, and you don't realize it."

"Not Warren." Lee shook her head, "Maybe me but not Warren, he's in with the heroes now, he's changed. Last year I would have agreed, definitely, but not now."

"Oh you don't understand, little girl, you don't understand." LeAnne hadn't stopped laughing, couldn't stop laughing. "If anything he's more likely to become exactly like his father than you are, because he doesn't face his hate and his fears. He bottles it up, at least you come and yell and argue with me once a month."

Lee frowned and bit her bottom lip, what LeAnne was saying made sense to her in a way she didn't want to it. "Oh, you see it, you see I'm right." The woman cackled, her once beautiful face contorting in horrid pleasure at the confusion on Lee's face.

"Shut up, bitch!" Lee yelled, slapping the other woman across the face. Her head jerked back, hitting the chair, and she groaned.

A moment later the guards rushed in and grabbed Lee before she could raise her hand against LeAnne again. They pulled her arms behind her back, wrestling her away even as she swore at LeAnne, who only laughed louder. She had won, because she had made Lee doubt Warren, doubt the security and balance he had seemed to find in the last year with his hero friends. That was all she ever wanted to do when her daughter visited, make her doubt herself, because as long as she was off balance she would question everything around her, question the 'heroes' and the 'villains' and if they really had it right.

Review please. Anyone who read the first two chapters of this (which might not be many people, as they've only been up for a few days) I would like your opinions on whether or not this is better or worse than the last version, and why.


	2. Chapter 2

An hour after being very politely thrown out on her ass at the prison after slapping LeAnne, Lee was still driving aimlessly around the city. She glanced at the clock, only nine still. She could go home, to the disappointed looks when they heard what she had done, or she could go back to the Paper Lantern and work until closing at eleven, and then volunteer to help clean up afterwards and stay even later. She could work until she was so tired she couldn't even think about LeAnne, let alone hitting her, and then she could go home long after everyone else was asleep and pass out and bed and forget any of it had ever happened.

She decided on the latter, and got off the freeway at the nearest exit, turning towards the little restaurant. Even with the knowledge that there was work awaiting her in only a few minutes, Lee couldn't help but think about what had happened at the prison.

It made no sense; LeAnne had said nothing that really should have set her off. But for some reason she had lost control, if only for a brief moment. Warren was a touchy subject, for whatever reason, possibly because he had so very much in common with her. They were friends of sorts, more like he tolerated her because she forced him to, but she was very fond of the boy.

The idea that he would be exactly what everyone accused him of being, his father's clone and heir, was almost painful and very frustrating. He had changed a lot in the past year, with his hero friends and his growing tolerance for the Commander and Jetstream, but she could still see the rage in him. And LeAnne had been right, he did keep it all bottled up until it had to explode out of him, and someday that explosion might be what threw him over the edge.

As she pulled up outside the Paper Lantern she shook the thoughts from her head, it wasn't any of her business what Warren acted like. If he wanted to screw over his life and become another Baron Battle he could go ahead and do it, and she would have absolutely nothing to do with it either way because it wasn't her job to judge everything he did.

She pushed through the doors of the Paper Lantern, and was greeted by a wall of conversation blending into one noisy drone that gave her an instant headache. Lily was at the back, snapping at someone, but she turned when she heard the bell on the door. "Lee, what are you doing back?" She demanded, hurrying over. "I thought you were going to be gone for the night."

Lee shrugged, "Everything didn't go as planned, and I needed something to do, so I figured I'd come back and help out."

'Good, good. We're still very busy, any help is needed." The tiny woman ushered her back into the kitchen before disappearing again.

Inside the kitchen it was hot and sticky, making Lee shift uncomfortably and begin sweating, but the smells and the sounds were still calming and reassuring, soothing her frazzled nerves. Pulling on an apron and tying it around her waist hurriedly, then pinning on her nametag, she grabbed the arm of the nearest waitress, whose name was Pat.

"Who needs to be dealt with?" She gestured questioningly at the tables outside the door. Pat pointed one out and then went back to work, Lee followed her.

Soon she was consumed by the normal stress and strain of work, hurrying from one table to another taking orders and serving food, refilling glasses and dealing with checks. Trying to translate the baby talk of a five year old who insisted on ordering for herself, then refilling a glass of chocolate milk that was dumped down her leg, and trying not to scream at the same time.

Only when the second to last table was finished with their check and left did she finally slow down long enough to realize that nearly two hours had passed since she arrived and it was five minutes from closing time. Almost all of the staff had left already, only Lily, Warren, Pat, Lee, and the chef remained, and Pat was heading for the door. There was almost disconcerting quiet with only the one family left, and they were nearly finished, in fact Lee was taking them their check when she slowed down to look at the time.

"Is there anything else I can get you before you go?" She asked pleasantly, pasting on a fake smile for the older couple and their two grown children, who had been there since she arrived and were driving her insane.

"No, no, thank you very much." The son, he had introduced himself earlier as Eric but Lee wasn't comfortable thinking about him by his first name, took the check from her. His fingers brushed hers as he did, and she pulled away quickly. He smirked at her unpleasantly and Lee smiled unnervingly back.

"Good, have a nice night." She turned away and stormed into the kitchen, slamming her hand against the countertop as soon as she was out of sight of the customers.

"Something wrong?" Warren asked, his voice a low rumble.

Lee glanced up at him and couldn't help but smile. He was elbow deep in dishwater on the other side of the room, with his hair tied up in a bun and an apron on and looking so very domestic it was insane. Tomorrow she would see him at school, back in his leather jacket and ripped jeans with his hair loose, and he would look like a completely different person even though she knew he would be exactly the same. He looked a hell of a lot more approachable and pleasant the way he was at that moment.

"Yeah, that guy has done nothing but stare at my chest and make suggestive comments since I got back." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the last occupied table and rolled her eyes, "It's driving me insane, thank gods they're leaving, finally."

"The old one or the young one?" Warren asked, following her pointed finger and raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, ew, the young one. It would be even worse if that _grandpa_ had been doing it." Lee pulled a disgusted face and smacked Warren on the shoulder, "I can't believe you even suggested that."

Warren pulled away from her playful smack, and Lee was reminded that just because he let her violate his personal space didn't mean she actually got to touch him, however playfully. "I had no way of knowing which one it was." He shrugged.

"I guess. But still, gross…" She trailed off as she watched the family get up and finally leave the restaurant, letting out a sigh of relief. "I'm insanely glad they're gone."

Warren started to wipe his hands off and leave the kitchen, to collect the dirty dishes on the table probably. "Don't bother, I'll get it. You just finish with that." Lee pushed off of the counter she had been leaning against and reentered the dining area, heading for the vacated table, humming a tune under her breath.

She carefully picked up and balanced the majority of the dishes in her arms, heading back to the kitchen with slow and careful steps to avoid dumping her armload all over the floor. "Why are you doing that, dear? That's Warren's job, you should be heading home." Lily called out from across the room.

Lee jumped at the sudden sound of her voice cutting through the silence, nearly dropping her cargo. "I'd rather be here than at home, honestly. So I'll just help Warren finish up and close up, if you don't mind Ms. Peace." She called back, giving the woman a pleading glance. If it had been physically possible with all of those things in her arms she might have gotten down on her knees and begged the woman to let her stay late, not wanting to return to her house at all that night if possible.

"Alright, alright." Lily gave in, "You tell my nephew I'm leaving now, and it's his job to lock up, alright?"

"Of course, ma'am." Lee nodded, but most of her attention was focused on figuring out how to get through the door into the kitchen with her armload. She finally nudged it open with a hip, after redistributing everything in her arms, and rushed inside before it swung closed on her. "Here you go Warren, and your aunt says…"

"I heard." He cut her off. She could barely hear him over the clatter of the dishes being dropped into the sink.

"I've just got a few more things to get and then I'll help you in here." Lee muttered, heading back out.

Outside of the kitchen it was dark, Lily had turned off the lights on her way out, and unnatural shadows bounced off the walls every time Lee moved. Seeing in black and white most of the time meant Lee was used to the colors that the dining room was in with the lights off, but the lack of anything living in it meant that she couldn't even see by the glow of that living being's energy. She was completely in the dark other than the faint light filtering in from the kitchen, and it made her feel lonely even though she knew Warren was only a few yards away.

She hurried gathered up the last of the dirty dishes and rushed back into the kitchen. Light and warmth greeted her as soon as she stepped through the swinging door, as well as the sound of dishes clanking against each other in the sink, and she sighed in silent relief. Lee wasn't scared of the dark, no, she had gotten over that in the first grade, but she was scared of how lonely and cut off from the rest of the world it made her feel.

She lived in a world of light, if not color, because of her powers, and being without that light was disconcerting.

Joining Warren at the sink in silence she picked up an extra sponge and began scrubbing dishes. The water was warm to the point of painfully hot, probably because Warren's arms were in it, Lee was sure that if he removed his arms it would drop a few degrees at once. For several long minutes they stood side by side in complete silence, the only noises the occasional curse as something slipped from their hands or the clack of dishes being set in stacks and then put away.

After awhile though, Warren spoke, "Why are you back?"

"Hmm?" Lee glanced at him with a carefully constructed blankly confused look, pretending not to know what he was talking about. "I'm working, that's why I'm back."

"You were supposed to be off tonight, I heard you arguing with Lily about it." His tone was completely uncaring, but the glance he threw her way was slightly accusing. "And you told me you were going to the Supers Prison, to visit LeAnne I assume, that was a surprisingly short visit."

Why Warren had to be talkative and curious about only the subjects Lee did not want to discuss or at inconvenient times she would never know, but he always had been. "We got into a little argument, over you actually." He raised his eyebrow and looked at her like she was insane, but said nothing, and so she continued. "She thinks we're just like them, you in particular for some reason, even though she hasn't met you since you were five years old and I've hardly mentioned you. I don't know how she knows, but she predicts a lot about the world outside. I'd think she was telepathic if I didn't know otherwise."

"Why does she think that?" Warren grunted. He sounded angry and the water in the sink was growing steadily warmer, though his face remained stonily blank.

"I have no idea." Lee shrugged. She was just as frustrated as Warren was, and had just as few answers, though he seemed to assume she had more. "She said you bottle everything up inside and that's what's going to get you in the end, and maybe I'm slightly better off because I go and yell at her occasionally and get the load off my chest." She paused, took a deep breath, and then admitted, "I hit her."

"Why?" He raised an eyebrow at her, turning halfway so that he could look at her profile.

She kept her head bent so that wisps of dark hair that had fallen from her ponytail obscured her face and expressions as she spoke, "I have no fucking idea. I just…she's so frustrating, it's like her entire goal is to make me doubt everything, and I'm sick of it. She can make me doubt everything else in life, but I refuse to doubt my friends." Lee was almost yelling by the end, and she sucked in a deep breath to calm herself.

Admitting to Warren that she thought of them as friends felt odd. They had always spent a lot of time together, even when they were children because they had been the only supers in the elementary school they went to and the time only increased when they started at Sky High and Lee was hired at the Paper Lantern, but they had never acknowledged being real friends, even though anyone on the outside would assume they were.

Warren said nothing to accept or deny her claim of being friends, instead he remained silent. Lee didn't speak again, seeing the brooding look on his face that meant he wanted nothing more than to be left alone and returning the feeling wholeheartedly.

For the next twenty minutes they worked together in silence, finished with the dishes and then all of the little chores that needed to be done before the restaurant could be abandoned for the night. Or morning, as it was by the time Lee stepped out the back door into the alley with a last bag of trash to throw into the dumpster.

She headed back inside, untying her dirty apron as she went. "I'm out for the night, or morning, I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Yeah." Warren grunted, throwing on his leather jacket and shouldering his bag, he passed Lee her coat as she walked past.

"Hey, do you need a ride?" She knew that he frequently walked home after work, and it seemed like an unpleasant time of the night to be walking alone, no matter how threatening or powerful Warren was. "You're on my way home anyways." That was a lie, he was actually a ten minute detour away and they both knew it, but Warren didn't point it out.

"Sure." He said. They were standing so close that Lee could hear him breathing quietly, and smell the smoke on his jacket, both from cigarettes and his power.

"Alright, let's go." She turned away from him and walked out of the restaurant and he paused only to flick off the last set of lights and lock the door behind him.

Outside in the pool of light cast by a streetlamp Lee paused, reaching up to let her hair down from its high, tight ponytail. Long, mud brown hair cascaded around her shoulders and fell into her face, reminding her why she so often wore it up. "I need a haircut." She groaned, running her hands through it and tossing her head in an attempt to keep it out of her eyes.

"You always say that." Warren muttered. It was true, she had been saying for over a year that she needed to get her hair cut short, but she never did.

Truthfully she wouldn't know what to do with her hair if it was short, for as long as she could remember it had been long and uncontrollably wavy, it would almost be easy to have short and easy to manage hair for once. "You're right. Someday I'll do it though."

They climbed into her truck, which Lee realized that she had stupidly forgotten to lock, and she started the engine. It gave it's usual unhealthy groans and growls before finally starting with a roar, and music suddenly blasted from the speakers at high volume.

Warren jumped and turned it down hurriedly, then changed the radio station. Rather than argue over his choice in music, which Lee thought was horrific, she simply began to sing along with the songs she had memorized on long nights of studying together when he had insisted on choosing the music. She had learned long ago that it was pointless to argue with him over the choice of music, he wouldn't listen, because he was just as stubborn about that as he was about everything else.

It was a fifteen minute drive to his house, and they remained silent that whole time. When she pulled up outside of the little one story he shared with his mother, the one she had spent so much time at studying last year, she looked over at him. "See you in the morning, first day of our new hell."

He grunted acknowledgement as he got out, then muttered a thank you before slamming the door. Watching him walk inside Lee realized just how tired he looked, it was amazing that he had stayed awake the entire drive. He wasn't going to get much sleep that night, as it was already past one in the morning and the bus to school arrived at the stop they shared at exactly 7:45.

Lee didn't intend on even trying to sleep, and when she got home she walked around the side of the house rather than to the front door. There was a light on inside still, probably one of her brothers waiting up to make sure that she arrived home in one piece and without a guy, or any signs that she had been with a guy on her.

Instead of entering the house she climbed up the vines on the side and onto the roof, where she sat with her back leaned against the second story and watched the stars, smoking a cigarette as she contemplated the day awaiting her at that hell of a school.

**Alright, a ton of people have read the last chapter so I would really like to know what some of you thought. It does not take that long to drop a review, and it would make me very happy to get opinions on this. I don't even care if it's to say that this is crap and I should go jump off a building if I ever consider writing again.**


	3. Chapter 3

_Fire and smoke and screaming, the scent of blood on the air, the crackle of lightning. Explosions in the distance, accompanying rubble falling to the ground and clouds of dust filling the air. Inhaling became painful, those who could still breathe felt as though they were choking to death._

_All the death and destruction and she was standing right in the middle of it, watching but unable to do anything to help. A child is useless in a battle, especially one without any powers. They are only one more person to protect, one more life to watch snuffed out._

_ The battle seemed to rage around that child though, almost as if she didn't exist, or they couldn't see her. The heroes went flying by, the people fled, right around that child. While others were grabbed up and rushed away they left her there to watch, and she did._

_ She watched the figures on the rooftop, screaming and swearing and throwing things at each other. She watched a woman shoot down hero after hero, laughing insanely the whole time. Finally though, one got through, a tall man in a red white and blue uniform. He punched the woman squarely in the jaw before he was blasted backwards by a wall of white light._

_ The woman walked to the edge of the rooftop, bleeding and holding one arm at an awkward angle, and she looked right at the girl and smiled. "Are you proud of me now, daughter?" The child cried, though her eyes had remained dry throughout the horrific battle._

_ As she opened her mouth to reply,_

She awoke, her sweaty face stuck to the hand it was resting on. "What the hell?" She demanded loudly, looking around.

The exclamation drew stares from her classmates, and a raised eyebrow from the squat woman at the front of the room. "Sleeping in class again, Miss Maine?"

Lee groaned and dropped her forehead to the desk, "Yes, I was."

"I'm going to be kind and not give you detention on your first day, Maine, but don't let me catch you doing that again." The tiny woman snapped, glaring over her half-moon glasses.

"You won't catch me." Lee muttered to the desk.

The girl sitting beside her giggled and shook her head, "Maybe if you slept at night you wouldn't have such a problem."

"Shut up, Rae." Lee growled, turning her head just far enough to glare at the redhead. "I will put your ass through a wall if you don't, sidekick."

"I doubt you could manage, you yourself said your battery is running low." Rae smirked, confident that she couldn't be harmed at that moment.

"Fine, I'll drain you and _then_ I'll put your ass through a wall." She held out her hand threateningly close to the other girl, curling her fingers just enough to put a look of horror on Rae's pale face.

"You wouldn't dare." Rae hissed, glancing to see if the teacher had looked up before knocking Lee's hand away from herself. "Not if you ever want to see the light of day again, you know what they said last time."

Lee rolled her eyes and stood at the exact same time as the bell rang, "They can't do anything, or at least they won't, they don't put students away."

"I will never understand how you do that." Rae scrambled after her friend and also assigned hero, who was already halfway to the door. "And as of last year, yeah they do. So you'd better watch it, because I bet you're next on their list."

Again Lee rolled her eyes. Since last year's lockup of Royal Pain's little gang of students Rae had a paranoid theory that Lee was going to be joining them the next time she stepped out of line, despite the fact that she wasn't half as bad as some of the other students. It was because of her mother, Lee knew, Rae had never quite gotten over finding that out despite her assurances that she didn't care. "Stop being paranoid, alright? I'm not headed for a spot in solitary, promise. They can't blame the child for the sins of the parent."

"No, but they can blame the child for multiple fights and an accidental murder." Almost as soon as the words were out of Rae's mouth she regretted them.

Her back slammed against the nearest row of lockers, a large hand closing around her throat and severely constricting her airflow. "What did I tell you about that sidekick?" Lee hissed in her face, black-brown eyes blazing with fury.

"That it was an accident, that it shouldn't have happened, that no one but those who were there ever have to know because it will never happen again." Rae choked out. Uselessly her fingers curled around Lee's, trying to pry them from her neck but knowing she would fail. The other girl was both much bigger and much stronger than her, and even if she didn't mean too she was tugging away Rae's energy and making her weaker.

"Exactly, so don't _ever_ mention it again, got it?" Lee shook Rae hard, then dropped her and backed away.

Coughing slightly Rae traced the red marks of fingers on her neck, there would surely be bruises there later from the strength of Lee's grip. "Yeah, I'm sorry." Despite Lee's violent reaction to her comment Rae really couldn't blame her, that had been a trying night for everyone and she'd had no right to mention it.

"Forget it." Lee slung her arm around the shorter girl's shoulder and led her through the crowd of onlookers that had gathered to watch the little fight, though it was a common thing between the two friends, or Lee and any of her friends really. The crowd parted for Lee, muttering to each other as they dispersed into smaller groups.

Together they wandered towards the cafeteria, relieved that lunch had finally arrived. The day had seemed to drag on and on in classes, especially since newly assigned hero/sidekick partners were arguing constantly and slowing down everything. It had been lucky that Rae had been assigned to Lee, she was the only sidekick Lee ever hung out with or even knew the name of and probably the only sidekick that was likely to get out of their partnership with all of her limbs intact.

In the hallways they were forced to dodge and duck a pair of boys playing catch with another boy's head of all things, that boy was wandering around aimlessly and his head was complaining loudly. People were using their powers in the halls but surprisingly no one was fighting, at least not yet. Warren was stalking down the hall ahead of the girls, and with the look on his face it was quite possible that someone was going to get torched sometime soon.

Inside the cafeteria was the usual chaos, with a line for lunch going right out of the room. Lee dragged her sidekick over to the soda machines first, then to the only nearly empty table in entire room. Warren was the only occupant of that table.

Plopping down across from him with a sigh, Lee let her forehead slam down against the table. Beside her Rae shuffled around in her bag until she withdrew a container full of macaroni and cheese. "Hey, firefly, heat this up for me?" She tossed it across the table.

Warren glanced up from his book just long enough to glare at her, ignoring the container entirely. "I am not a microwave, go find one."

Lee chuckled and grabbed the container, "I'll see what I can do." She took hold of Rae's hand just long enough to make the other girl feel lightheaded and then sent a shock of white light out her other hand and through the container. There was a hissing sound and when she glanced inside the macaroni was not only warm, but burnt to a crisp. "Yeah, sorry, I'm good at frying things, not so good at straight focused heat. I probably shouldn't have sent the current straight through it, around would have been better."

"It's alright." Rae sighed, staring sadly at her former lunch.

"Here." Lee dropped a few bills into her hand, "Get me some of whatever looks least likely to kill me while you're up there." Rae flashed her a grateful smile and left the table.

"I don't think it's possible to find something of that description in there." Warren muttered.

"I know, but it's worth a try." Lee shrugged and let her head fall back to the tabletop, which was pleasantly cool against her face. The rest of her body was overheating from being fully covered by clothes much better suited to winter weather, once again.

"Hey Warren!" An all too perky voice drew Lee's attention and she dragged her head up long enough to spot Layla approaching, dragging her boyfriend behind her and being followed by their little gang. He glanced up as well but didn't respond, returning to his book. "Oh, hey Lee, I didn't see you there!"

"No one ever does." She muttered, "I'll see you later Warren, have fun with your heroes." She waved to Warren, picked up her can of soda off the table, and pushed past the group standing around Warren's table.

"I don't know why she dislikes us so much…" Layla muttered as the girl left, frowning at her back.

**Ryuunhina: It's been said for things I considered a heck of a lot better written than this. Thank you for reviewing.**

** People, follow her example! I can see the stats you know, I know how many people are reading this and how many have it on their alerts list but only ONE person has bothered to review and it's making me sort of sad.**


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